There is a known need for balanced natural nutritional food bars which can provide a more sustained energy, one which lasts between regular meals over periods of one to two hours, and which avoids the energy drop associated with the quick energy provided by candy bars. While consumers are concerned about health, many are unwilling to sacrifice taste to achieve good health.
There exists therefore a need in the commerce for a food bar which has the taste, texture, and appeal of a good tasting chew bar but which is more nutritious than a candy bar. There exists a need in the art for a food bar capable of supplying nutrients and sustained energy while providing a desirable good taste.
There are practically no patents claiming any natural nutritional honey chew bar obtained from a natural honey. On the other hand, there are few documents concerning a process for concentrating and obtaining a chewable honey mass. Those documents do not mention any particular process which could make available the production of the chewable honey bar mentioned above without loss of its nutritional values and flavour.
Regarding a natural nutritional honey chew bar, WO9803074 discloses a solidified product obtained from honey or fruit juice, with a hardness comparable to that of hard candy and less likely to stick to the teeth, which does not deform. JP2207762 relates to a product consisting of concentrated pure honey for carrying and handling convenience by packing vacuum evaporated honey.
None of the referenced documents reveal any features which provide for conservation of the labile components, nutritional properties and superior taste, mouth feeling (sensation) and organoleptic acceptance of natural honey.
Regarding honey evaporation concentration processes, WO9803074 reveals removing water from the honey or fruit juice while heating at 100° C. or above under reduced pressure to prepare a solidified product having a water content of not more than 3%. After the solidification, the product is molded in a dry atmosphere having a humidity of not more than 55% into mouldings having a size not larger than a mouthful, which are then hermetically sealed in a package one by one with an aluminum foil or the like in the same dry atmosphere. But from the employed one-step high thermal conditions and extreme final evaporation one must conclude again that degradation of valuable organic components occurs. JP2207762 discloses a process for removing water from pure honey at temperatures within a range from the ordinary temperature up to 40-90° C. and during 1 hr or less by using a vacuum evaporator. The resultant concentrated honey is poured into a-shaped part of a packing vessel of a heat-resistant plastic preliminarily coated with a prescribed amount of an edible oil and fat (e.g. coconut oil) and spontaneously cooled to be formed into a solidified honey. The opening part side of the vessel is then covered and sealed using an aluminum foil or a sheet 18 free from moisture absorption, thus obtaining the object product. Herein, focus is placed on solidify and packing natural honey into a solid product. From the poor heat transfer and long honey residence time occurring in the used vacuum evaporator one must conclude again that degradation of valuable organic components occurs.
Other documents in the prior art refer to viscous fluids evaporation and/or concentration processes. Document WO9718023 describes a rotating heat transmission body with system for scraping the evaporation surface. Said document reveals a rotating heat transmission body for drying of pumpable viscous products, and useful in case of evaporation of solutions that form deposits on the evaporation surface. The heat transmission body is constructed as a rotor with a cylindrical supporting mid-section that functions to lead the heating vapour stepwise forward to a large number of disc-shaped ring channels during condensation of the vapour and at the same time lead condensate and false air away from these. For drying, the heat transmission body is mounted with a vertical axis and horizontal evaporation surfaces that allow application of thicker layers of moist product, which can be scraped off after drying with subsequent application of new product with aggregates that each can serve a number of jointly running heat transmission surfaces. One must to suppose the over-heating of such labile nutritional components as present in natural honey.
Of course many other state of the art patents claim different processes leading to solidified products from heavy viscous fluids. But differences with respect to the object of the present invention regarding thermal stability of labile honey components render them unsuitable for the object of the Invention, which requires mild conditions suited to honey evaporation in order to preserve in the chewable bar the superior taste, mouth feeling (sensation) and organoleptic acceptance of natural honey.
Therefore there is a need for a new product—a non-cooked, ready to eat chewable bar obtained from natural nutritional honey, and a preparation process thereof. Such a process and product are claimed in claims 1 and 7.